Muh muh muh means tuh testing - Covid #6

[Fragile Bird]

The US is going to close down the border with Mexico to prevent Chinese people getting into the US that way. Pompeo just said it.

I guess they still haven’t admitted Canada wanted the border closed to keep pestilence infected Americans from getting into Canada.

[Zorral]

High fatality for men in China is thought to be (at least as far as I know still thought) linked to the men throughout the society being very heavy smokers.

What about air pollution?

[AndrewJ]

 

13 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

the data i've just been reading from China showed males were slightly higher in confirmed cases (51.4 - 48.6), but massively higher in deaths (63.8 - 36.2).  

 

11 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

Women are generally a tougher lot when push comes to shove.  

Another factor... in my experience it seems that, in Asian societies, women feel far more pressure to maintain a healthy body shape. Whereas men being somewhat overweight is far more acceptable. So women will tend to be healthier and therefore are more able to withstand the effects of the virus.

[Werthead]

On the male/female thing, the people I know and have seen reports of in the media who are recovering relatively straightforwardly seem to be women. Several of the guys I've seen posting recoveries have had to have had antiviral or respirator assistance.

Anecdotal, of course. The celebrities infected - Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Daniel Dae Kim - all seem to be falling into the milder side of things as well, and Hanks is certainly in a more at-risk age group. 

55 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

Maybe this will be a wake up call to the Western World, to start making serious steps towards regaining their manufacturing sector.  Because China is a shitty overlord to have to bend the knee to.

If people want to pay five or six times what they are for electronics and clothes, sure.

But the last fifty years strongly suggests that they won't.

The reason China is the dominant world power in manufacturing is because of free market economics and unrestrained capitalism. If you want to change that system in a practical manner, I'd be interested in any suggestions.

What's going to stop China dominating these sectors will be the advent of manufacturing plants in countries where the standards and costs of living are even lower (possibly in Africa, where China is investing heavily in setting up manufacturing). The chances of them coming back to the West seem improbable without ending international trade as we know it.

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Anecdotal, of course. The celebrities infected - Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Daniel Dae Kim - all seem to be falling into the milder side of things as well, and Hanks is certainly in a more at-risk age group. 

This seems like one of those hopeful anecdotal things that maybe the virus truly is way more widespread than we think, and it really isn't a big deal for the vast majority of people. And its only among celebrities, including NBA players, that people who aren't showing symptoms, or only have mild ones, are being tested.

We'll see.

[BigFatCoward]

@WertheadWhat if UBI was a reality, but it was attached to an account that would only let you 'buy British'? 

Edit, where buy british was an option. 

[AndrewJ]

1 hour ago, Frey family reunion said:

Maybe this will be a wake up call to the Western World, to start making serious steps towards regaining their manufacturing sector.  Because China is a shitty overlord to have to bend the knee to.

But perhaps less shitty than to a nation whose president tried to buy exclusive rights to a vaccine so that they could have access to it but it was denied to anyone else.

As an Aussie, I'm perhaps ready to shack up with China - as they could just be the lesser of two evils.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

17 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

 No, you should be, along with community concerns.  My personal social and economic issues 100% influence how I think about these things.  Don't know your exact situation but, it's totally ok to let it inform your decisions and state of mind.  There are millions people in this country in the same situation and when you think and speak about your situation you are thinking of them as well, you are not being self-focused in being concerned about these things, and you shouldn't apologize for it.

Thank you

[A Horse Named Stranger]

The UK would go bust?

[BigFatCoward]

1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

The UK would go bust?

Is that in response to me? Why? 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yes.

UBI (depending on how you define it) to only buy British. The UBI would've to be pretty high.  Manufacturing in China is simply much cheaper. The money for the UBI would have to be generated somewhere. Taxes? Drives up production costs again, so also the UBI would have to follow suit (feels a bit circular). The more logical way would pay to do with tariffs, so to drive up Chinese goods with another layer of tax. That wouldn't make British goods cheaper, but it might make Chinese goods expensive enough for the British to be competitive. However, there UBI would have to be relatively high again.

[Week]

Watching this cluster of a briefing by the WH ... When are they going to stop standing next to each other, touching the podium, and TOUCHING THE 15 DAY DOCUMENT.

[Luzifer's right hand]

15 minutes ago, Fez said:

This seems like one of those hopeful anecdotal things that maybe the virus truly is way more widespread than we think, and it really isn't a big deal for the vast majority of people. And its only among celebrities, including NBA players, that people who aren't showing symptoms, or only have mild ones, are being tested.

We'll see.

Might be the short time frame too. I know someone with COPD who got it and he was mostly ok(compared to his shitty normal) until more than a week after a positive test and then the fever hit.

[Guest]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

Nearly half of coronavirus patients report gastrointestinal issues along with respiratory symptoms.

Quote

Diarrhea and other digestive symptoms are the main complaint in nearly half of coronavirus patients, Chinese researchers report. Most patients with the coronavirus have respiratory symptoms, but these findings from the early stages of the outbreak show that digestive problems are prevalent in many patients with COVID-19.

Quote

Patients with digestive symptoms had a variety of problems, including loss of appetite (nearly 84%), diarrhea (29%), vomiting (0.8%) and abdominal pain (0.4%).

I found out last night that during December and January, I came into close contact on several occasions with my boss from my old job, who was traveling throughout Asia between 11/13 - 12/2 (I was told for sure India and Thailand, and then maybe Macau (he's a big gambler).

I had to go to the ER on January 27 because I thought I was having a stroke or heart attack or something (felt like my blood pressure was spiking, was having trouble with fine motor skills, like signing my name at the ER, felt like I was going to pass out).

Turns out I was just dehydrated...because I had been forgetting to eat for days, because I wasn't hungry. I chalked it up to stress from a career transition and my ex-wife having a major surgery and complications during that time. I had to manage it by setting alarms on my phone to remind me to eat and drink.

Now I'm having vague, flu/cold-like symptoms, and maybe an elevated temperature. Is it possible that I've been experiencing symptoms for weeks and they're just now worsening? 

I also know for a fact that this individual has not self-reported to anyone at that office about their travel during that time. Do I have a duty to report?

[BigFatCoward]

Just posted in UK politics but probably belongs here as well. UK 80% of salary up to £2500. How sustainable is that? 

[BigFatCoward]

Fuck. Italy had 627 deaths in a day. That 50% up on yesterday. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Relatively good news, and pretty grims news WRT Italy.

Italy has a relatively old population and not the strongest Health System. That somewhat explaisn it. Ok, not exactly good news, but to put things a bit in perspective.

The bad news is. If you look at what part of Italy has been affected, it gets really bad. It's been the relatively rich North of Italy. Not the poorer southern part. So this is basically the region that should've been better equipped to deal with this. If things go south (in the literal sense) they'll go south (in the proverbial sense).

If you really want to have a depressing thought. Just imagine what Corona will do, when it hits the African continent.

[AndrewJ]

13 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Just posted in UK politics but probably belongs here as well. UK 80% of salary up to £2500. How sustainable is that? 

Need to provide a little more context around that, mate.

Is that what the government is guaranteeing per fortnight for people that lose their work? Per month?

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, AndrewJ said:

Need to provide a little more context around that, mate.

Is that what the government is guaranteeing per fortnight for people that lose their work? Per month?

Rishi Sunak lays out the plan here:

There really is a hell of a lot to it. Including guaranteeing 80% of retained workers' salaries, up to 2500 pounds per month.

I wish this was the direction the US was going. It seems much more simple than trying to pause rents/mortages/etc. and then bailing out the financial institutions relying on them to stay afloat.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

19 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Just posted in UK politics but probably belongs here as well. UK 80% of salary up to £2500. How sustainable is that? 

It isn’t, and this will go on for a while. Estimates I’m hearing suggest the U.S. will have to inject $3-5t into the economy in the next few months.

I heard an interesting point. This is completely new territory, because previous stimulus packages have come with the goal of getting people out and shopping. This one has to be designed to put countries in a coma.